Russians destroy Chernihiv SBU archive with documents about Soviet repression 

In Chernihiv the archival unit of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) that had documents about the Soviet regime’s repression of Ukrainians has burned down, Anatolii Khromov, Head of the State Archival Service of Ukraine, said on TV channel Rada.  

He said the situation with Ukraine’s archives is critical. In addition to the burned down archive in Chernihiv, several archive buildings have been damaged, including in Kharkiv, but the documents there remain intact. 

«We don’t have accurate information about what is happening with the archive departments of district state administrations in temporarily occupied territories. Unfortunately, we don’t have clear details about the state of the archive buildings or the fate of the archivists there», – said Khromov. 

He added that there is the risk that russia will destroy or steal Ukraine’s archives and use them as part of their state propaganda, including to justify the russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and 2022. Khromov pointed out that the russian state archive is subordinate to the president of the russian federation.

«It is common practice for russia to illegally move and steal Ukrainian archives. This happened during the russian empire, during soviet times, and in 2014, when Ukrainian archival documents held in the state archives in Crimea and Sevastopol were, in violation of all rules and norms of international law, declared part of the archives of russia», – Ukraine’s archive chief said.   

He hopes they will have more detailed information once communication is restored.

Employees of the State Archival Service will conduct an audit of archival documents after Ukrainian troops regain control of occupied territories. 

As reported earlier, the russians are removing Ukrainian fiction and history books that don’t fit the kremlin’s propaganda from libraries in temporarily occupied parts of the Luhansk, Donetsk, Chernihiv and Sumy regions.  

Information about open access archival documents can be found here.

Read also: Cultural Disaster: What Ukrainian Sites Were Destroyed by Russian Occupiers

Photo: Realnaya Voyna